Bringing home the gold...

Ashni has been fencing now for a full year and she is really excelling in the sport.  Her coaches are very impressed with her progress this year.  You may remember last year around this time, she won a bronze medal at her very first tournament.  She has since competed in several tournaments and has qualified for youth summer nationals.  Today, she fenced in a local tournament and swept her division.  She won every single bout (except for one of the preliminary ones that determined their bracket) and won her very first gold medal.  We're pretty proud of this kid.

What's My Kid Wearing

It is beginning to look a lot like....SPRING!  Yay, spring.  I am so over being cold and wet and stuck in the house.  So I am incredibly grateful that we finally saw several days in a row of above average temperatures.  It's so nice to feel sun on my face and ride in the car with my windows down.  My allergies are not big fans of this time of year, but it's almost April darn it, and I need to be warm.  The other good thing about spring is the outfits contain less layers and are, therefore, much cheaper.  The kids got their first trip to the playground in 2013 on Tuesday and this is what they were wearing...

Zion

yellow and white polka dot tank - Crew Cuts ($.99 at Goodwill)

denim leggings (I can not bring myself to refer to them as "jeggings") - Cherokee, I think ($.99 at Goodwill)

And her favorite white oxfords (previously featured)

Total outfit (minus the shoes) - approx. $2

Bijou

grey and white striped tank - Kiddo ($1.49 at Goodwill)

skinny jeans - Children's Place ($1.49 at Goodwill)

sparkly gold shoes - Justice ($1.99 at Goodwill)

Total outfit - approx. $5

Ashni's last big party!

The Janelle Monae dance party is done and so is my birthday party season for now.  Phew!  The kids had a great time.  I'm pretty sure that Just Dance is the absolute best birthday party activity for girls aged 8 to 13!

The birthday girl looked quite dapper in her bow tie and jacket.  She really looked the part (fortunately the hair do is much easier than it looks)

The cardboard boombox was a last minute decorating idea.  For some reason I drew a blank on party decor for this one, so we just had tons of black and white crepe paper and balloons.  So it just felt like we needed something else.  Fortunately, I always have lots of cardboard on hand.  Nothing like free table decor.

This was, by far, the coolest cake topper ever!! Someday I will learn to stage things and have a nice blank background so that things will pop, but right now, I photograph my regular old life.  So you get to see the wall map and green high chair in the background.

A great time was had by all and I am glad it's over for another 8 months or so.  Time to take a party break!

It's Poetry Month

I promise that my kids still actually do school work.  I know that most of my posts are about their clothes, but that's really just my blogging laziness.  But seeing that it is National Poetry Month and my girls are working on writing their own poems, I figured I'd share one that Ashni wrote.

Pots and pans upon the kitchen
Eating thyme throughout the kitchen
Radish, patish, pasta sauces
Young and old can cook these dishes.

 I love it when she writes poetry.  It's always so insightful and whimsical.  And she writes it all so effortlessly.